L' appel du vide

Chapter 8

No one spoke, we were all perplexed. Its was like time froze for eternity but just for a moment. I moved nothing but my eyes and looked over to Ollie. His brows were furrowed and he seemed to be upset. I myself was trembling in bitter fear but I still was the first to even dare to move a muscle.
"Sh-it what was that." My words were cracking like old paint on furniture. Neither Ollie nor West answered. I took a deep breath and stepped backwards.
"Come on guys. Let's leave." I said, in a monotone voice. West cleared his throat.
"Um..yeah let's just go." He said,his voice stern to cover up his fear. On the way back,no one spoke. As we stepped out of the dark trees, I realized, that even though it had felt like hours,we had only been gone for about 10 minutes or so. The tutors and other kids were still talking and eating their breakfast. But after what i saw, I wasn't too keen on eating anymore. I turned around to Ollie, who hadn't said anything the entire time.
"You okay man?" I asked the brunette whose face was still as pale as a ghost. He didn't say anything, he just nodded, which made me even more concerned. But I didn't question him any further, as to avoid him getting tired of me again. I looked down at my right hand, which I had wrapped Frankies leash around in the fear he would run up to that creature. The dog wasn't panting anymore, much rather he seemed tired. I loosened my tight grip on the leather band. Frankie took advantage of that and started trudging over to the pond,to lay down in a warm spot of sunlight. West was coming behind,now breathing regularly again. His face seemed to gain its usual tan color again. His eyes went back to sleepy too, instead of wide open. I hadn't realized that i had been staring at him until Ollie spoke to me:
"Alex? Are you...." He glanced past my shoulder and saw West, standing there, slouched and tired looking. "...okay..?"
His voice was now thin, and not as worried as before. His eyebrows drew together even more and he crossed his arms.
"Whats on your mind Alex,hm?" He asked, but clearly didn't care for the answer. So I didn't reply.
"Whatever. Let's just go eat." He coldly added.
"Actually I'm not that fond of eating right now. I'll just sit by the pond. You go eat though!" I explained, expecting an understanding and kind answer, just like last time. Instead i was met with an eye roll from Ollie. Did I do something? He was probably just shocked by the previous event, so I couldn't blame him. As he walked away, I turned around again and walked over to the sunny spot where Frankie was laying.
"Hello good boy." I said in a babying voice to the dog. He let out a deep breath ,from under his large snout muscles, in response. I sat down next to him, on the healthy green grass. The sunlight blinded me slightly. I pet the dog on the head.
Suddenly, someone sat down next to me. It was West. As I didn't expect him, I didn't say anything and stayed silent. Unsurprisingly, he spoke first.
"So, we aren't going to tell anyone about that thing in the woods right?" He questioned, not looking at me.
"No, why would we? Do you really think anyone here would believe us?" I argued.
"Right. But don't think we have some ‚connection' now." West said, his tone cutting the air like a knife.
"Yeah I didn't think that in the first place. Also, i bet you have a lot more friends to traumabond with, so you don't need me anyway." That last part was only half a joke. He just glanced at me. "You're real funny huh? I'm West."
"I already knew that. I'm Alex-" I was cut off by Ollie calling me over. I didn't say anything, i just nodded at him. "Gotta go." I quickly got out of my mouth, then walked away. Was West really that bad as Ollie said? I mean, we did have a rough start this morning but, he didn't seem as bad of a person as Ollie painted him to be.
.
.
.
About two hours had passed and the tutors were done with showing us the ‚interesting' nature. Even though i slept pretty well, i almost fell asleep. But i got through it, and eventually we left. Ollie still wasn't talking to me, for some reason and was chatting and laughing with some younger tutor a few steps in front of me, on the was back. West wasn't talking to anyone, obviously. So I just had to go back alone, like I was a loner. Well,I kind of was. Ollie was angry,almost devastated even though I didn't know why, West disliked me from the beginning and Milo and Finn weren't an option since they would probably side with Ollie. So yes, i really was alone. I was pretty contempt with that though. But not Ollies harshness. It was nagging at me from the inside like maggots. Was he mad that we went into the forest because of me and almost got eaten by that...thing??! It was probably that reason, that was reasonable, right? I was overthinking too much again.
When the group got back to the camping ground, it was lunch time. The sun was burning on my back. The tutors advised us to go to our sheds and change, since lunch would be available in the cafeteria soon. So that's exactly what i did. With Ollie following behind me, i stepped into the wooden shed. I took of my backpack and shirt, to put on some fresh clothes. Ollie still hadn't said anything to me. So i decided to talk first.
"Hey Ollie?"
"Huh?"
"Is something wrong? You haven't really talked to me since this morning."
"Um, sorry. I just... you know. You don't see a scary creature in the woods everyday." My thoughts were right.
"That's true. We shouldn't have went there, it was my fault. I'm sorry." I apologized.
"No it's fine. We really shouldn't tell anyone though, they would set us aside as psychos."He answered.
"Yeah of course. I already talked it out with West-" i stopped talking when I noticed his expression change. Whenever i mentioned West to him, he seemed to get annoyed.
"Why do you dislike him so much?"I asked after a moment of silence.
"Who?"
"West. I mean, every time he's mentioned or you see him you just get annoyed? I just want to know what's up with that."
"Oh. Didn't you notice? He hates everyone, that includes both of us. He's a stupid lying egoist. He only cares about himself and himself only, thats why he's always alone." Ollies voice was shaking with even more anger than before.
"Did something happen between you guys? You seem to be pretty hostile towards him."
"No- well.. ugh! I don't know how to explain this. Maybe later." He seemed more fed up than before.
With that, he walked out of the shed, slightly slamming the door behind him. Once everything was silent, i heard my stomach rumble. Guess i hadn't eaten for...a day almost.
.
.
.
Lunch went well, with Milo and Finn talking about their first half of the day, releasing the air of any awkwardness.
The tutors announced that we had a free afternoon, and could do anything we wanted on the camping ground.
"Well what's there to do here?" I asked Milo, who was sitting across from me and had half a mouth full of food.
"Oh there's a lot. Mh- so, there's a broken swing right next to the bathroom. There's... not much actually but..." he looked to Ollie and Finn for approval. They both nodded, Ollie being a bit hesitant. "We've made a little corner for ourselves behind the big building. We'll show you later." I nodded, i was excited. Also surprised that they would take me into their friendgroup this quickly. But i just thought of it as really nice of them.